


Give it Time

by carolion



Category: American Idol RPF
Genre: M/M, Pre-Slash, Unresolved Sexual Tension
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2011-12-31
Updated: 2011-12-31
Packaged: 2017-10-28 13:52:39
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,762
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/308540
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/carolion/pseuds/carolion
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>When he met David Archuleta for the first time, the kid wouldn't stop staring at his lip rings.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Give it Time

When he first got the lip rings, Andy had to keep reminding him not to touch them, or tongue them, or bite on the metal, not only because they were still sensitive then, and prone to inflammation and infection, but because he looked like he was “a perpetually horny creep and eager to jump the first warm body that got close enough.” (Andy’s words.) It had been hard at first – they felt _new_ , alien, and he was obsessed with the way they felt, smooth and different and distracting. He thinks he probably could have spent hours feeling the metal in his lip, sucking them into his mouth, running his tongue over them until they were warm to the touch.

Now he mostly leaves them alone, and only mouths them when he _is_ feeling a little worked up, unable to stop himself from biting down the piercings – it’s like a reflex by now, kind of a ‘tell’ for him, and Dave and Andy mock the shit out of him for it, but nobody he’s fucked has ever complained about it.

When he met David Archuleta for the first time the kid wouldn’t stop staring at his lip rings. And sure, Neal is used to people staring at him, at his face and his mouth and his arms and his legs and his hair and his whole fucking being, but Archuleta acted like he was another _species_ which was just so rich, coming from him. His eyes had been saucer wide, huge and this funny color, not really brown or green or anything at all, and he kept ducking behind Dave shyly when Neal made eye contact.

At the time it was annoying. But Archie stared at him every time they met, and by Manila Neal had started to enjoy the attention. It didn’t hurt that Archuleta was kind of _hot_ , with his tiny waist and broad shoulders and beautiful hands. He told himself he could look, but didn’t bother to put any effort into actually pursuing Archuleta – it was hopeless. Just something pretty to look at, and when the pretty thing looked back he didn’t mind preening a little, even if the attention was mostly just fascination.

Archie starts to actually talk to him by the fifth or sixth time they meet, and he’s kind of surprisingly interesting, as a person. The first time he made Neal laugh he looked so bewildered and shocked that it had made Neal laugh harder, and when he looked at Archuleta’s face again he was smiling, a little pink in the cheeks but _happy_ , seeming so pleased to have made Neal laugh. So he wasn’t just a pretty face, after that.

Summer means writing, and recording rough demos, and hanging with other musicians, bouncing ideas off of one another, and messing around guitars until something started to form. He doesn’t think much about Archuleta except when Dave mentions him, says something about his record, or having dinner with him, or wanting to hang out with him.

Inexplicitly, he invites Neal to come with him.

Even more inexplicitly, Neal agrees.

As soon as he says, “Yeah sure, I’ll tag along – I’ve got nothing better to do,” he wishes he hadn’t said anything at all. There’s no reason for him to want to see David Archuleta again (even though he does want to, he can’t really lie to himself) and he’s just going to be a third wheel in the weird, cosmic friendship that Dave and David have.

But when they get there, it isn’t like that all. Archuleta greets Dave with a slightly awkward hug and wide smile, exclaiming about how good it is to see him and how is the record going? He doesn’t notice Neal right away, but when he does his face lights up.

“Neal!” He says, sounding sort of weirdly excited to see him, and Neal waves awkwardly, not really sure what to do in this situation. He’s not like Dave, he’s not going to grab Archie into a hug, and a handshake seems too formal. The wave will have to suffice, and it does, because Archie waves back, despite standing only a few feet away. Neal has to smother a grin, looking down and away.

“Hey,” Neal says back, tilting his head a little. Archie is staring at his face again. Not looking at him - _staring_ , from his forehead to his cheeks to his nose to his mouth, where Neal is _sure_ his gaze lingers on his lips. He resists the urge to rub his hand along his mouth, a little self-conscious, but then Archuleta seems to get a hold of himself.

He smiles, and Neal is taken off guard, just like every time. “C’mon, have you met…?” Archie says, and drags Neal off to meet a couple of the guys who have been working with Archie on his record, and Archie is just so damn _excited_ , and happy, and Neal doesn’t even care that Dave is raising his eyebrows like an idiot like him, a stupid, knowing grin on his stupid, dumb face. He ignores him, watching Archuleta’s hands as he talks, and doesn’t regret coming along at all.

Later, when Dave gets into a heated discussion about song writing or something with a few of the other guys, Neal kind of disengages. He doesn’t want to get involved – he knows he’ll just get annoyed, so it’s better to remove himself from the situation. He goes into the kitchen and wrinkles his nose at the beer in the refrigerator, choosing to grab a glass and fill it with water instead. When he turns around, Archie is hovering in the doorway, looking small and timid, unsure.

Neal blinks at him. “Do you want some water?” He asks stupidly, and juts the glass he’d just filled for himself at Archie. He doesn’t know what to do.

“Um,” Archie laughs and moves fully into the kitchen, his eyes crinkled at the corner as he smiles at Neal. “No, it’s okay. Just wanted to see how you were doing? I’m sorry it’s not, um, really exciting or anything. It was nice of you and Cook to stop by.”

“It’s cool,” Neal says, and means it.

Archuleta is staring at him again. And for once, Neal wants to ask.

“Have you never met anyone with lip rings before?” He taps them gently when Archie startles and blushes. “You stare – a lot.”

“Oh!” Archie exclaims, and then goes even pinker than before, looking away. “I um, no, not really. My friends never – and I don’t really, uh, get out much. They’re really cool though!” He says earnestly, and Neal – Neal believes him.

“What do you want to know?” he asks, because Archie has a look on his face like he has more to say, but doesn’t know how. And it’s like the floodgates open. (Like Archie thinks about it a lot, like he wonders about Neal’s mouth, his lips, the metal in them all the time.)

He asks a lot of questions, (“Did they hurt? What do they feel like? When did you get them? _Why_ did you get them?”) and Neal tries to answer all of them, but when Archie drifts closer and looks at Neal through his lashes and shyly asks if he can touch them, well, Neal can’t answer that at all.

All he can do is lean down a little and try not to breathe too fast, letting Archuleta run his cool fingertips (soft, unlike his own, but not girl-soft, just normal) over Neal’s bottom lip from corner to corner and back again. Archie’s eyes are wide, his mouth puckered a little, as if he’s imagining what they feel like. He takes his fingers off of Neal’s mouth and presses them briefly to his own, wonderingly.

Neal licks his lips, snags one of the rings between his teeth and think about showing Archuleta _exactly_ how they feel.

Of course, Dave’s _awesome_ timing _would_ kick in just then.

“I’m not interrupting anything, am I?” Dave asks, a shit-eating grin on his face as he meanders to the trash compactor, sliding right between Neal and Archie.

“No,” Neal says through gritted teeth, glaring at the back of Dave’s head before turning to see where Archie went. He was, predictably, across the room now, looking flushed and anxious and unsure of himself again. Neal sighs.

“Well, this was fun but we have to go. Let Archie get back to recording hit singles and all that,” Dave says with a wink to Archie, going over to him to hug him goodbye. Archie automatically goes into “gosh thanks!” mode, and Neal sighs, annoyed because he let himself – he _almost_ let himself go beyond just looking, almost let himself _hope_ , nearly went into _touching_ territory. (Who was he kidding? He did hope. And he _did_ touch.)

They say their goodbyes to other people (who Neal hadn’t paid any attention to at all, not really) there, and were almost out the door when Archie calls his name.

“I, uh, you – I didn’t really say goodbye,” he explains, looking a little confused as he said it, like he didn’t quite understand _why_ he was saying it. Neal feels a little the same way.

“Oh. Uh. Goodbye?” Neal tries, but Archie looks frustrated. “Good luck with the record.”

“Right. Thanks.” And that – that’s definitely a note of dejection in Archie’s voice. “You too,” he says, but it’s lacking the usual Archuleta enthusiasm, and Neal barely has time to think _What the fuck am I doing?_ before he’s snagging Archie’s wrist in his hand.

“We should hang out some time,” he blurts out, all too aware of Dave standing just a few feet, probably with that same stupid smirk on his face like he had in the kitchen. “It was fun.”

Archie’s face lights up like the sun. “Oh, yeah! Totally! Um, can you – can you get my number from Cook? And then text me or something. Or – or whatever you want. I’d really like that.” He beams, and Neal thinks _I’m fucked_ , before smiling shakily back.

“Cool,” he says, “I’ll talk to you later Archuleta.”

“Definitely,” Archie says happily, “bye Neal.”

Dave, to his credit, doesn’t say anything on the ride home, but he does immediately thrust his phone at Neal and punches him on the shoulder still grinning like an _idiot._

Neal thinks about punching him back, maybe a little harder than playful, but instead worries about how soon he should contact Archie, and what the hell he’s going to say, and how he got into this mess in the first place.


End file.
